| Day pillar | 乙亥 (yi hai) |
|---|---|
| Heavenly stem | 乙 (yi) |
| Earthly branch | 亥 (hai) |
| Day element | Wood 木 (mu) |
| Polarity | Yin |
| Month pillar | 丙午 (bing wu), governed by 芒种 (mangzhong) |
Today's day pillar is 乙亥 (yi hai), a yin Wood day in the sixty-day cycle. The month pillar is 丙午 (bing wu), governed by the term 芒种 (mangzhong).
Every label on this page is a different reading of the same two characters, so it is worth knowing what each one is pointing at.
The day pillar is the pair itself, stem above and branch below. The heavenly stem and earthly branch lines split it in two and name each half. The day element and the polarity are both taken from the stem: the element is which of the five it belongs to, and the polarity is whether it is the yang or the yin form.
The solar term and the month pillar put the day in its season. The solar term is the one currently governing, and the month pillar is the two-character name of the month the day falls inside, which changed at the last sectional term rather than on the first of the calendar month.
Nothing here is a forecast. These are the day's coordinates in the tradition's own calendar, which is what any real reading has to start from.